Back-to-school Sales – How to Boost your Seasonal Marketing
August is here and with its arrival come back-to-school campaigns. Little by little beach afternoons and vacation days are falling behind us and on the horizon we have back-to-school marketing sales waiting for every business owner.
Back-to-school, in particular, school supplies, paper book or ebook sales allow opportunities to dive into seasonal marketing and get your campaigns back on track. Back-to-school implies an influx of spending for most families. Usually, after all the summer expenses, finances become complicated, and people turn to promotional campaigns, as products that were ignored before summer now become a necessity.
As often occurs, very few families will stop to think about what to reuse from previous years. So spending will occur in a short period of time with instant decision making.
We recommend that you start your marketing machinery again with the return to school. Prepare a welcome back after summer with eye-catching promotions.
Are you ready to boost your brand?
Increase your community of users with simple promotions.
If your goal is to grow your community and get back engagement you had before the summer, we recommend that you bet on campaigns with simple mechanics that encourage participation. Although, you can always generate a greater impact with a striking promotion.
Bet on User Generated Content
Social networks are dynamic. It is no longer important to simply create quality content, it is also important to bet on User Generated Content. In other words, collaborative content created by followers.
There are multiple ways to generate this type of content. One of them is contests which will help increase engagement and strengthen ties with your community of users/customers.
To achieve quick results in this field, Twitter is the best option since it is the social network with the highest participation rate.
Twitter contest: quick, original and simple
August is a slow month, generally speaking, in terms of social network activity. If you want to give power to your Twitter account, pay attention. You can boost your brand with a contest where followers share what is the best or worst thing about back-to-school. You can also pose the question of what challenge they have set for the new school year. It is very important to take care of the choice of hashtag to encourage the participation of users.
Boost Instagram with creative sweepstakes
Another interesting social network for generating UGC is Instagram, which is also the fastest growing social network. That’s why it’s perfect for launching campaigns linked to the back-to-school theme.
For example, a campaign where they have to comment on what their must-haves are for the new school year. Or have them post a photo saying goodbye to summer vacation. Again, do not forget to create a striking and simple hashtag.
Interactive contests: increase engagement
This simple mechanic will provide very positive results. Take advantage of the campaign to get to know the community. Ask them what is their best back-to-school memory or any related anecdote…
Voting contest: discover your customers’ tastes.
You can also take advantage of contests by using them to find out which products or services your customers like the most. You can pit different products against each other and choose the winner from the most voted option. It is undoubtedly very useful to know the likes and dislikes of your community.
However, if you are looking to convert users into customers, there are more valuable alternatives such as promotions or discounts.
Boost sales with a promotion
Promotions have a direct impact on sales. They allow you to convert followers into customers by driving them to your online store.
Promotions are a win-win approach. They allow for a new way to raise awareness of a company or a new product. A perfect opportunity to help your customers in their expected back-to-school shopping sprees.
Invest in Google Ads campaigns
But let’s not focus solely and exclusively on social networks. We can’t forget that though we value our community, and also value our community’s engagement and operation, what we are most interested in is the back-to-school increase our sales.
And for this we cannot forget to invest in campaigns with the biggest search engine, Google. Try Clever Ads Google Ads Creator.
Back-to-school is often a month of firsts for children. A month composed of new backpacks, new school shoes and a new notebook and all these novelties are reflected in the level of searches for school supplies on Google.
Another back-to-school must-have are supplies for extracurricular activities. August is the month of enrollment for excellence, so campaigns for schools and academies have to be at their peak!
August is also a month of resolutions. A month to join the gym, acquire a new skill, or learn a new language. Although it may sound like a cliché, we ensure that these types of searches increase in August and September.
Extra Google Ads Tip: use the promotion extension
As we have already mentioned, the return from summer vacation can also mean an increase in economic effort after vacation expenses, so it is a good idea to launch an offer or promotion to attract the attention of users who are looking for a product or service but at a lower price. A fantastic way to promote this type of discounts in Google Ads campaigns is to use the promotion extension.
This type of extension allows us to select between monetary discount, percentage discount, up to a discount amount and up to a percentage discount. We can also add conditions to the promotion such as “on orders over” or enter a promotional code. Through the promotion extension we can direct the user to the section of the website where the products on offer are located.
Avoid these 3 mistakes:
Lack of planning
In communication everything has to respond to a previously planned strategy. Starting the campaign when it should already be underway will not give good results.
Forgetting online and offline interaction
According to previous studies, 74% of consumers look for promotions online, and 61% make online inquiries before making a purchase decision. It’s also important to brand physical stores well so that there is no doubt that there is little time left. Similar to Christmas, we go into “shopping” mode when stores are dressed up.
Putting adults aside
Back-to-school, in addition to the start of classes, means a return to routines, habits and university. From discounts on cell phones to special rates for the gym and resolutions such as eating healthy… Practically everything has a place in this August consumption peak.
